When we first visited Bankside Power Station for the original Tate Modern competition in 1994, it seemed like the castle in Sleeping Beauty – an enormous urban mountain that was completely overgrown, surrounded by barbed wire and prickly roses, as if protecting the hidden beauty inside. It seemed dangerous. It is totally unimaginable now, but this was a huge chunk of the city that was totally excluded from public life, set back behind high walls.
— theguardian.com

Read more on the Tate Modern:A look around the new Tate Modern extension"We can't sneer at developers": Herzog & de Meuron examine London's futureFirst look inside Tate Modern's new Extension View full entry »

The original Tate Modern redevelopment was started in 1995 and since opening in 2000 has become the most popular gallery in the world. It made sense then for Herzog and De Meuron to return and finish the job. Their architectural evolution and legacy is now embedded in the London skyline, as is... View full entry »

In London, though the Tate is now finished, there is other work to be done...

"We can’t sneer at developers," says Herzog. "They are the ones who will increasingly dominate the shaping of our cities. But we should try to convince them to add accessibility for everyone. To ask, can we do it better?"
— Telegraph UK

Now that they've completed the Tate Modern extension, what's next for Herzog & de Meuron? In this piece, trilingual biking-afocidionado Jacques Herzog speculates on the architectural future of London, and his firm's potential (developer-positive) role in it. Herzog & de Meuron, in the... View full entry »

Set to open on 17 June, the Tate Modern Switch House – named after the part of the power station that the new galleries occupy – expands the museum by 60% to accommodate the surging numbers of visitors, which reached 5.7 million last year, well over double the number the building was designed to cope with when it opened in 2000. But the arresting brick ziggurat is also a physical symbol of the effect the Tate has had on its surroundings.
— theguardian.com

Read more relating article here:Future sustainable skyscrapers will be made of...wood?Fabricated robot installation at the V&A unveiled as part of their first Engineering SeasonHerzog and de Meuron in conversation with Rowan Moore View full entry »

As Herzog explains, piling some refined Swiss biscuits on the table in front of him to illustrate his point, an earlier design envisaged stacked-up glass cubes, but the material was too similar to the developers’ stuff. “We realised that in order to survive we have to strengthen it,” he says [..]

Yet the precedent of the original Tate Modern – also severe on the outside, lively inside – shows that a building doesn’t have to gurn and wheedle to be popular.
— The Guardian

"In this and other works, Herzog and De Meuron like to present a protestant moment of denial before pleasure, to forbid before welcoming, to be severe before generous. It is part of their worldview, different from most architects’, in which delight and beauty co-exist with more troubling or... View full entry »

Now visitors will be able to descend from the Hayward gallery’s glass pyramid ceiling to its entrance level on one of two 15-metre slides commissioned for an exhibition opening later this year. Built into the gallery’s exterior wall, the slides will “constitute a graceful sculptural installation” while also being a device for “experiencing an emotional state that is a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness”, [Carsten Höller] said.
— The Guardian

Previously, Höller had created a similar installation for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2006. The slides were very popular with the public, although also responsible for several injuries.For his upcoming exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, Höller has also created "Flying Machines," which are... View full entry »

For the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect talked with Adora Lo, Architect turned Pro LEGO Builder. They discussed the "challenge of keeping it LEGO legal" and the satisfaction of designing a "Star Wars building in LEGO". midlander was impressed "That Boston model...The Lego... View full entry »

"I am a naturally peaceful person, but I wouldn't be that upset if 'Vladimir' accidentally met with a baseball bat," - an art lover @twitter
— The Guardian

The Guardian reported "A man has defaced a multimillion-pound Mark Rothko mural hanging in the Tate Modern gallery in front of onlookers. A police investigation is now under way into the vandalism of the US artist's work. The graffiti on the painting appears to read "a potential piece of... View full entry »